DPI wants gazette notification of Cauvery Tribunal order

Madurai, Feb 9 (UNI) Dalit Panthers of India (DPI) today demanded that the Centre immediately notify in the Gazette the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal without further delay.

Addressing media persons here, DPI leader Mr Thol Thirumavalavan sought adequate protection to life and property of Tamils in Karnataka. To press this, the party would hold an agitation in Chennai on February 10.

In his view, the final order fell short of giving Tamil Nadu its just share and failed to meet the expectations of farmers in the Cauvery delta. The state should file an appeal to secure justice.

He opposed Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz's suggestion to include water in the concurrent list, apprehending that it was an attempt to usurp the rights of the states.

Regretting that there was a visible anti-Tamil stance in inter-state river water disputes, like Mullaperiyar, Palar and Bhavani, he urged the Centre to pay attention and clear such fears.

The DPI would commemorate the golden jubilee of linguistic reorganisation of states and formation of Tamil Nadu with special programmes, he said. On April 14, a conference was planned in Tirunelveli to press for land rights to Dalits.

He also demanded that the DMK administration fill large-scale vacancies of Graduate Tamil teachers in Government schools.

On the continuing 'encounter deaths' in the state, he observed that this would turn the police force into an autocratic one and wreck the credibility of the criminal justice system.

UNI